Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), has called for increased investment in research, innovation, and cross-sector collaboration to address growing health and environmental challenges across Africa.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Bashiru Garba, made the call on Thursday at the opening of the CAMRET-OHI Joint International Conference held at the New Auditorium of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH), Sokoto.
The conference, organized by the Centre for Advanced Medical Research and Training (CAMRET) and the One Health Institute (OHI), is themed “Harnessing Research, Innovation, and Partnership for One Health Solutions to Emerging Health and Environmental Challenges in Africa.”
Garba said the increasing burden of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, environmental degradation, food and water insecurity, and biodiversity loss required an integrated approach.
He said the challenges were interconnected and could not be effectively addressed by treating human, animal, and environmental health separately.
“For Africa, therefore, One Health provides an important framework for developing solutions that are scientifically sound, locally relevant, affordable, and sustainable,” he said.
The vice-chancellor said universities had a responsibility to ensure that research findings moved beyond academic publications to become policies, innovations, and interventions that directly improved people’s lives.
He said, “Our responsibility is not only to generate knowledge but also to translate research findings into policies, innovations, and interventions capable of improving lives.”
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Garba highlighted CAMRET’s research into vaccine candidates for Lassa fever and COVID-19, the establishment of a COVID-19 screening center during the 2020 pandemic, and the center’s postgraduate programs in cancer biology.
He added that CAMRET had secured competitive research grants worth millions of naira.
At the One Health Institute, the VC said it had introduced a Master of One Health program, describing it as the first dedicated professional master’s program of its kind in Africa.
According to him, the program had completed its first cohort, while the institute had also established the African Journal of One Health.
Garba urged participants to use the conference to strengthen research partnerships and develop practical solutions to Africa’s health and environmental challenges.
He particularly challenged researchers to examine how findings generated in laboratories and universities could be translated into community-level interventions and public policies.
In a keynote presentation, a scholar from Gazipur Agricultural University, Bangladesh, said developing countries could achieve greater impact by combining indigenous knowledge with biotechnology and digital technologies.
The scholar cited Bangladesh’s use of farmer-conserved rice varieties alongside modern breeding techniques to develop crops capable of withstanding flooding and salinity.
Digital disease surveillance initiatives in Malawi and Rwanda were also cited as examples of how technology could strengthen responses to public health threats.
The keynote speaker urged researchers and governments to involve affected communities in designing interventions, stressing that local knowledge could complement scientific innovation.
Also speaking, Prof. Musa Kana, Professor of Perinatal and Paediatric Epidemiology at Kaduna State University, identified inadequate funding and fragmented governance as major barriers to effective One Health implementation in Africa.
Kana also identified professional rivalry among medical doctors, veterinarians, and environmental scientists as a challenge to effective collaboration.
He called for dedicated and sustainable One Health budget lines at both federal and state levels, as well as legislation to clearly define and institutionalize One Health responsibilities.
“We need dedicated and sustainable One Health budget lines at the federal and state levels, as well as laws that will institutionalize One Health responsibilities,” Kana said.
He further advocated the development of shared digital platforms for monitoring zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance.
The Director of OHI, Prof. Bello Arkilla Magaji, and the Director of CAMRET, Dr Ibrahim Malami, said UDUS was expanding its One Health capacity-building initiatives.
They disclosed that the institute, established in June 2024, had graduated its first MSc cohort of 40 students, while a second cohort of 46 students was currently in its second semester.
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